When Hogs Fly – Tamiya 1/48 Scale F-16C Block 32 Fighting Falcon

Every airplane model airplane I've worked on since reigniting my modeling hobby has been of World War II vintage powered by piston engine and propellor. This latest kit is my first foray into a more modern jet age, though the subject at hand, the Boeing/Lockheed Martin/General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon, was conceived closer to WWII than today.

This particular version is of the Block 32 variety used by the Arkansas Air National Guard. (For those of you not familiar, “Arkansas” does not rhyme with “Kansas”, but is pronounced “Ar-ken-saw”.) The wild boar pictured on the vertical stabilizer is not a boar at all but a strain of wild hog descended from feral pigs that escaped their pens in colonial times and continue to run wild in the southern US to this day. Called a “Razorback” because of the distinctive ridge of stiff hair running along the spine, the animal is the mascot for the University of Arkansas and the 168th fighter wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard (ANG) as we see here.

As this is the 1/48 scale Tamiya “ANG” Fighting Falcon model, it can also be built as one of two California ANG Block 25 F-16Cs. The CA-ANG planes look cool with an eagle motif on the vertical stabilizer swooping down to grab its prey, but I opted for the AR-ANG version because of the amount of underwing stores. I am a s****r for underwing ordinance.

As this is a recent Tamiya kit (ScaleMates shows the first “new tool” version in 2007), it is remarkably well engineered. Everything fit together with minimal sanding. Some parts, such as the main landing gear struts, bombs, triple bomb ejectors, and the AMRAM and Sidewinder missiles all snapped in place without glue. An absolute pleasure to work with.

The most potentially frightening part of the build was eliminating a ridge from the canopy, which required sanding clear plastic and cleaning up with Turtle Wax automotive paint clarifier (essentially a polishing compound). The kit comes with two sets of canopies, so there is a fallback should you need it (although only one is tinted).

I built this kit “bone stock” - straight out of the box without any upgraded parts.

The main challenge with the kit for me was figuring out how to paint it - and I don't mean what colors, but how to physically paint it. I can imaging all kinds of trouble if you followed the assembly instructions to the letter, so I came up with my own order of assembly. The first step was to build all the bombs and missiles, then assemble portions of the kit while painting them.

I dry brush all my models (I don't use an airbrush), so this kind of assembly worked for me. However, I decided that I am reducing my reliance on Tamiya acrylic paints. I've had too many jars of the stuff that dries almost instantly when it's applied or (in the case of some of the metallic colors) don't cover very well, if at all. Perhaps it's me that's causing these issues, but I simply do not have the same problems with Vallejo and AK acrylics.

On this kit, I also minimized the use of panel line washes and weathering. Don't get me wrong, it looks great when applied well (something I'm still working on), but these aircraft look pretty darn clean in most of the pictures I've seen, so I took a pass.

I enjoyed building this Falcon so much that I'll probably build another jet-perhaps an F4 Phantom II. Or it could be to convert a vintage 1/32 scale Revell Bristol Beaufighter into something more presentable. Stay tuned…

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.